Before I get into Easter, I wanted to update you on Scott's travels. He was with an MNU Maxima Mision group for a week in Teculutan and Morales, Guatemala, and after that he was in Amsterdam for a week, for a theological conference. He really enjoyed his time in Holland - it was his first time there. He fell in love with the stroop vaffels, a cookie that they eat with tea or coffee. He brought home 5 bags of them! He talks about them everyday, and how much he loves them. When they are gone, I don't know what he's going to do!
On Easter week, we had vacation days on
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It was great to be able to spend some family time together, after Scott's absence from home. We bought a swingset on Thursday, and put it together on Friday. We are getting more handy as the years go by. On Friday, we also invited the Slingerland girls over so that we could color easter eggs. Elijah and Sydney had a lot of fun doing it, but didn't have much patience for leaving it in they dye too long! On Saturday, we took a family day and went to the Auto Safari Chapin (if you want to see a web page in Spanish, you can look it up at www.autosafarichapin.com) We were able to drive around the "safari" and see all sorts of animals like a lions, zebra and Sydney's favorites - giraffe and monkeys. Elijah was disappointed they didn't have elephants. At the end of the safari, they have a nice public pool that we stayed about for about 2 hours. There were a TON of people there, since it was a holiday, but luckily for us, lots of Guatemalans like to stay on the side of the pool (I think it's lack of swimming skills, but don't know for sure) - so we had a lot of free reign in the center of the pool! The kids loved it. 
On Easter morning, we woke up at an early 4:30AM, in order to be at church for the 5:30AM sunrise service. Most of the churches here in Guatemala have a sunrise service on Easter Sunday. 
It was great to celebrate the resurrection of our risen Savior with our local church. Even though we didn't get home until 11:15AM (after 2 complete services and a breakfast in the middle), we were really glad that we made the effort to go. The kids crashed for their naps, and slept most of the afternoon. There were no evening services, so we just hung around the house. The pictures here are of the kids after the services - 5AM was a little TOO early to get smiles out of them! :) (It's also a way that you can see the handy work of the new swingset!)We are currently getting mentally and physically prepared for our summer with our Youth in Mission team. They arrive on June 3 and are here in ministry until July 26. We are trying to get all of the details in place, as far as schedule, housing , food - the list goes on and on. We'd appreciate your prayers for our sanity. We did have a great answer to prayer - Julie Bird, a senior higher from our church in Kansas is coming to be a nanny for the kids for 5 weeks this summer! She is going to be here from June 3 - July 8. Please pray that she can get enough financial support to buy the airline ticket.
We'd like to bring back the Funny Saying from Elijah: This time, there are 2.
1. Dear Jesus, please protect Daddy since he's in HAMPSTERDAMSTER (instead of Amsterdam)
2. When choosing his NCAA Brackets (which didn't fair so well this year...) - Elijah, do you want Holy Cross or the Jayhawks? Hmmm, I guess the Jayhawks, but I really like Holy Cross. This was so funny, because for those of you that remember, he is ENAMORED with Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. I thought that he would take Holy Cross to the end - the only thing that stopped him was his Jayhawk upbringing... :)
We love you all. Hope that your weeks have been just as great as ours. Thanks for always thinking about us and keeping us in your prayers!
